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If You Aren't Doing Anything Wrong, What Do You Have To Hide?

Security expert Bruce Schneier writes a fantastic
essay
on the value of privacy. This is a great response to the rhetorical
question “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?”
often used to counter privacy advocates.

A couple key points he makes.

Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we’re doing
nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.

…

Too many wrongly characterize the debate as “security versus privacy.”
The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises
under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic
authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security
without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police
surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that’s why
we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.